


Light from Yeongdo to Kobe

by aspiringTwiceFan (itotoro)



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itotoro/pseuds/aspiringTwiceFan
Summary: The beam of the Yeongdo Lighthouse can travel up to forty kilometers.A breakup drabble and setting study
Relationships: Im Nayeon/Myoui Mina
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Light from Yeongdo to Kobe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anjanea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anjanea/gifts).



The Yeongdo Lighthouse was a forty-minute hike from the city proper of Busan. It was a solitary fixture built in 1906 on the side of Sinseonbawi rock. It stood at ten stories high, with a wide platform for viewing the Sea of Japan.

Nayeon's chest is heaving. It took thirty minutes for her to make the trip; the uphill trail burned through what little energy she had after a whole day of school. She walks the last of the wooden staircase, upwards, spotting the cement bleachers of the viewing deck. She tosses her bag on the bleachers, not caring for how it lands.

The floorboards of the platform creak under her leather shoes. They always creak. Nayeon walks to the edge of the platform, resting her arms on the weathered railing of the lighthouse. It is sunset.

Softer footsteps make their way toward her. Nayeon ignores it, watching the surface of the sea as it moves. The horizon is clear; the end of winter meant the end of cloudy skies. From here, she can see the island of Japan.

"Nayeonni" calls the girl. Nayeon hears her over the sound of the waves crashing on the rocky coast.

"Mina." Nayeon turns to face her. Mina's face is flushed in the sunset, an effect of the uphill trail to the lighthouse. She has her school ribbon loose around her neck and her backpack over her left shoulder.

"Is today the day?" Nayeon asks Mina the question.

Mina makes no move to answer. She rests her backpack on the wooden floor, walking to the railing of the lighthouse. Nayeon turns to Mina as she faces the sea.

"Japan isn't that far off." The sea breeze flows through Mina's hair, brushing it past her shoulders. "I can see Takeshima from here."

"So it's today." Nayeon's hands feel the rough pipe of the railing. The salt from the air coats the railing in a thin layer. The waves roar into the rocky coast.

"It doesn't have to be" Mina replies. She turns to Nayeon, and the light catches the edge of her face. "You can come with me. Apply for a university in Japan."

They had the same conversation, months before, on the cement bleachers of the Yeongdo Lighthouse. Nayeon ended it then with a kiss that tasted like the briny air. They fell asleep on the bleachers in their school uniforms, hands entwined and worries flying away with the wind.

"I don't want to leave this place," Nayeon admits. "There's a perfect program for agriculture in the local college-"

"I get it," Mina interrupts. She faces the sea once more, hands clasped and elbows resting on the railing. "What I don't get is why you have to break up with me."

Nayeon turns to the horizon. There is an outline of Japan that darkens as the sun sets behind it. The sea stretches toward it, overwhelming with its expanse.

The beam of the Yeongdo lighthouse can reach seafarers from up to forty kilometers away. "It's too far. Can't you stay?"

Mina sighs, but the sound is drowned out by the crashing of the waves. "You know I can't."

"I know."

Mina grew up as Sharon Myoui in a place with no ocean. Her father was a civil engineer, funded by his company to migrate from country to country. She spent her early years in Texas, moving to Melbourne for a decade before coming to Yeongdo-gu. It was in Busan that she learned to love the sea, to love Nayeon.

But she loved her father, and her father wanted to head home to Kobe.

Nayeon wipes her face, the tears in her eyes catching the salt in the air. It stings.

Mina turns to Nayeon. "I think it was worth it, what we shared." Her own eyes are watery.

The sea is vast and unforgiving. Any Busan local would know that. But Nayeon imagines that the beam of the Yeongdo Lighthouse would make its way to Japan despite the distance. And maybe, when they're older, Mina can find her way back.

"I'd wipe your tears but my hands are too salty." Nayeon sniffles, rubbing at her eyes with her wrist.

"It will probably make me cry" says Mina, "but I'd like that."

**Author's Note:**

> for @HiraiBunny on twitter. Really smart dare tbh HAHA I hope this is angsty enough


End file.
